


Heaven in Hiding

by Annfan



Series: Wandering on the other side of Eden [2]
Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Action, Cannon Divergence, F/M, No Sonja, Seth and Kate being badass partners in crime, Shower Sex, Smut, Some angst, Sonja stays in her tattoo shop in mexico where she belongs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-07-20 15:36:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19994584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annfan/pseuds/Annfan
Summary: Kate's not going to leave Seth, she's his partner now, for better or for worse. Whatever comes next, they'll face it together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a continuation of a fic that I wrote almost a year ago! I just finally got the muse to write some more. Hope you guys enjoy it!

Seth's right, the state of Texas is "goddamn bigger than hell." It takes them several hours to get to Juarez, and then its another ten hours from there to Houston. When they finally cross the border in Juarez, it's already near three o'clock in the morning.

The bleary eyed border patrol guard is just awake enough to be suspicious of the late crossing. "Missus has food poisoning. Montezuma's revenge is a bitch." Seth explains. Kate fakes nausea, head burrowed into a jacket she has folded up as a pillow. The border patrol guard nods knowingly, and waves them through after a compulsory glance at their fake papers. 

When they finally clear the border station, and zip onto an El Paso highway, Kate sits up, adrenaline coursing through her veins. Seth lets out a loud whoop. 

"We did it baby! We made it! Back in the good ol' U.S. of A.!" 

He lunges over, pressing a solid kiss square on Kate's mouth, one hand on the steering wheel and one slid into the back of her hair, gripping her like a life-line. 

She giddily laughs, kissing him back, breathing him like he's oxygen, feeling freer than she has in months. 

The car swerves, the reverberation of a rumble strip warning Seth to break off the kiss and return his eyes to the road. He slides his hand down and he rests it on her thigh, the familiar comforting touch keeping them connected, grounded to each other.

The highway stretches out, dark and black in front of them as they leave the city. Not much has changed, they're still running. But at least now they have a definite point, a place to go too, instead just from, and it feels like hope. 

"We're gonna be okay kiddo," Seth says softly. 

Before Kate would have been indignant at his choice of nicknames, insecure with the assumption that he considered her a child. Now she reacts to it the same way as she does when he fondly calls her babygirl, or princess. It sends a warm buzz down her spine, and a smiling blush creeping into her cheeks.

She knows that Seth can't promise that everything is going to be okay forever, there are more powerful forces in the world at work than Seth Gecko, despite all his bravado. But for right now, for this very moment, she believes him. She lets that warm comforting feeling of safety and trust wash over her as she listens to the soft murmur of wheels on tarmac. 

They reach a small mountain town and stop for gas on a winding empty road. An LED light blinks "BEER" in shades of red and green, even though the station's doors are locked for the night. Kate steps out, feet crunching on gravel atop fresh asphalt, surprisingly cool air brushing over her bare arms. She shivers, and stares off at the sharp jagged mountains, dotted with cactus and illuminated by the soft glow of the city's lights. 

Seth fills up the car with gas, sharp petroleum scent dispersing in the air. She can hear the soft creak of distant grasshoppers, but other than that it is completely silent. It feels like she and Seth are the only people in the world. 

"I can drive," Kate offers, quietly. 

Seth looks up, eyes meeting hers as he returns the nozzle to the pump. For a second she thinks he is going to protest, but then his face softens and he smiles. "Okay, that would be nice. I could use a break." 

Kate smiles back, and her fingers brush his as she takes the keys. He never lets her drive unless its during the heat of a getaway, but she has been behind the wheel in so many ways, so many other times, holding it together when he couldn't. Now, in this gentle release she sees an acceptance, a trust. He's got her back, and she's got his. They're partners now, and he can give up this one little bit of control. It's not everything, but its a start. 

Even though she slept earlier, Kate can only drive for so long. They reach the prairie, and then the oilfields, dark black oil derricks silhouetted like monsters against the orange-haze of the morning sun. She sees a sign for Abilene and turns the other way. Seth snores slightly in the passenger seat, arms folded over his chest. 

She stops at a rest area, decorated with fake windmills and a large poster with a disgruntled longhorn that reads "I have a beef with texting and driving." She snorts slightly, and Seth wakes, sitting up and smudging sleep out of his eyes with open palms. 

"I have to pee," she says, and throws the car into park. 

"Mkay," He nods groggily, unclipping his seatbelt. "I'll stretch my legs I guess." 

Kate goes into the rust-red tiled bathroom, squats over the seatless toilet and does her business and then washes her hands in the sink. She stares at herself in the mirror. She looks older she realizes, but not in the tired, shell-shocked way she had after the twister. No, she looks older in a good way, she thinks, still youthful, but more mature. She feels more confident. Most days her bones are still weary, and it still feels like a constant battle to keep her head above the dark waters of depression that would be so easy to sink into. But now she has the knowledge that she can survive, she can keep going, and that's enough. She knows she's strong, because she's made it this far hasn't she?

When Kate studies her face, for a split second in the dirty rest stop mirror she sees the resemblance to her mother, in the shape of her nose, and the slope of her cheeks. She tilts her head and blinks, and its gone, a sharp pang in her chest remaining. Its been almost a year, much longer than her father's death, but sometimes it seems almost more fresh. After the twister, it was like loosing her mother all over again. She felt so alone, coming to terms with being an orphan.

Kate splashes some water on her face, shakes herself out of the longing pain for the life she used to have. She has a life now, its not the same, but every life is worth living. She won't let herself succumb to the same demons her mother did. She likes to think her mother would be proud of her, for still fighting. 

Kate steps back outside, in the short time she was in the restroom the sun has finished its ascent above the horizon, shining brightly in the cloudless sky. Seth is leaning up against the car, seeming to have shaken away any residual sleepiness. 

"Ready to hit the road princess?" 

Kate pulls him into a sudden hug, pressing her face into his neck. He seems surprised, but embraces her back. He lets her linger there for a moment, hands softly on her back, arms shielding her away from the rest of the world. 

"Ready," she says. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still salty that we never got to see Kate and Uncle Eddie meet in the show, so in my version they do. ;) And, I was re-watching season 2 and Uncle Eddie's is actually in Houston, not Austin. So oops, fixed that.
> 
> Also, some smut in this chapter. Basically, the shower sex scene, just re-imagined with Kate. Cause lets be honest, that's what we all really wanted!

They stop at a diner for lunch, good old American food. Kate orders chicken fried stake and mashed potatoes drenched in gravy and drinks two full glasses of rot-your-teeth-sweet tea. She orders fresh, hot cherry pie for desert. Seth's fork darts over and steals a bite. He dramatically licks his lips, grinning lasciviously. "De-licious."

He pauses, and then opens his mouth to say something else. She sees it coming, knows his mind is flashing back to that perv outside the Twister, and she raises her spoon threateningly, shutting him down before he can speak. "No." 

"What?" He feigns innocence, lips still curled up in a smirk. "I didn't say anything." 

She rolls her eyes and finishes her pie. 

Kate manages to stay away for the last leg of the journey, talking to Seth and keeping him awake through the infuriatingly slow pace of Houston rush-hour traffic. Any time that Seth gained by speeding on the freeway is quickly lost in the hour long traffic jam on I-10. They could have stopped somewhere for the night, sure, but both of them had an unspoken desire to get as far away from the border as possible. The farther away they finally get from the Twister, Carlos Madrigal, and the rest of the shit-storm that has been their lives for the past three and a half months, the better. 

"So where are we going?" Kate finally asks, as Seth curses at a stoplight that's just turned red. 

"My Uncle Eddie's." Seth says. 

"You have an uncle?" Kate asks, and she realizes it sounds like a stupid question, but it all honesty she had never really thought about it before, the Gecko brothers having family other than each other. She realizes, even though she has been living with Seth for three months, she doesn't really know that much about him. Not about his past at least. 

"Well he's not really my uncle, not biologically. Just a family friend. He took us in a few years after our old man died." There is a glint of something in his eye when he mentions his father, and it isn't filial affection. Kate doesn't press it. 

The light finally turns green and Seth steps on the gas. "He's a good guy. Well, for people in our line of work at least. He was good to me and Richie." Seth pauses. "Not many people were." 

Kate never really thought about that before either, how Seth and Richie must have grown up. What life must have thrown their way to mold them into what they became. Its not an excuse for the things they've done, but she realizes, in a sudden moment of clarity, how lucky she was to grow up with the life and family that she had. 

"We're here!" Seth announces as they pull into the parking lot of a dated looking Tv-repair store. 

_"Fast Eddie's Color TV Repair"_ the multi-colored sign reads. 

The lights are off inside, and the shop appears to be closed down. 

"C'mon princess, get your stuff." Seth steps out of the car, and she follows, slinging the backpack with all of her worldly possessions over one shoulder.

"The sign says it's closed on Sundays Seth," she points out. "Are you sure your Uncle is here?" 

"He lives in the back, I don't see his car though, he might be out." Seth is searching around the door for something. "Ah ha, there we go!" He finds what he is looking for, a small, unobtrusive key box. 

He swings the front door open and leads Kate through displays of old TV's and other hardware. They pass through a door into the apartment section of the building, which is equally dark. The only light is coming from a yellowed desk lamp projecting its light onto a half drunk bottle of whiskey, and a set of building floor plans. 

Suddenly, Kate hears the loud, and now familiar sound of a pump-action shotgun. She jumps into Seth instinctively, one hand tightening around his and the other reaching for the grip of the handgun tucked into the back of her jeans. 

Seth steadies her, he doesn't seem alarmed. "Really Eddie?" 

The light flicks on, and she sees a wiry older man holding the shotgun. He has a friendly but worn-out face, with bushy grey eyebrows to match his beard and hair. The same grey hair peaks over the top of a white wife beater, on top of which is unbuttoned, geometric pattern shirt, and a pair of reading glasses hung around his neck. "What do you want?" He gripes. 

"Seriously Eddie? Come on, its me!" Seth flashes that shit eating grin of his that is hard to resist unless you've had practice. From the unamused look on Uncle Eddie's face, she's sure he has had plenty of practice. 

Uncle Eddie ignores Seth and stares past him to Kate. "What in God's name is a fine young lady like yourself doing with a no-good-low-down-shit-bird like my nephew?" 

Kate likes Uncle Eddie already.

"Okay, easy there!" Seth scowls defensively. 

Uncle Eddie appraises her one more time, glances back over to Seth's hulking stature next to her, "Exactly how old are you sweetheart?" 

Kate squares her shoulders, "Eighteen." 

"Eighteen?" Uncle Eddie whistles. "You out done yourself this time boy," he glares at Seth, and then back to Kate. "Do your parents know you're running around with this numbskull?"

Kate lowers her gaze to the decidedly 70's carpeting. "My parents are dead." 

"Jesus Christ," Uncle Eddie mutters half to himself. "Sit down, both of you." He puts down the shotgun and waves to a brown couch, pulling up a metal chair to sit across from them. 

"You must be a load of deep shit to show up here." He sighs. He glances at Kate, like Seth can't hear him and says "You know he only comes when he needs something." 

"That's not true!" Seth protests. 

"Hmph. You know, I outta change that sign up front with the way you boys keep showing up expecting me to fix your problems! It outta be called the Gecko repair shop." 

"Wait," Seth leans forward. "You boys? What do you mean _you boys_?"

"Two days ago Richie came in here looking for a hand-out. Now you're sneaking in here with little miss barely-legal." 

"Richard was here?" Seth waves his arm around. "Here?"

"What, am I slurring my words? He wanted a favor, just like you. He was alone though." Uncle Eddie glares at Seth.

"Oh, don't start with me," Seth flops back on the couch, arms crossed. 

"You were supposed to look out for him! Stick together! He's _family_ Seth." 

"Not anymore," Seth mutters. 

Kate can feel the bitterness rolling off of him, but she knows its mixed with sadness too. She remembers long months of crying for Richie in his sleep, of needles and empty bottles, and reckless decisions, anything to chase away the memory of his undead brother. She knows that really, deep down, as much as he pushed it away, all he wanted was to have his brother back, just like she wanted Scott back, he just couldn't see it through his pigheaded determination to be angry. 

"You know, that's funny." Uncle Eddie narrows his eyes. "He said the same thing." 

Seth's jaw clenches, and Kate gently puts one hand on his leg, which he covers with his own. Uncle Eddie raises an eyebrow, but doesn't say anything. Instead, he reaches to the desk behind him and pours himself a drink, nursing it for a minute before speaking again. 

"I promised your dear old mother, god rest her soul, that I'd look out for you two. And I couldn't do it when I was serving my time and your father was beating the tar outta you, but I damn well did once I got out and he kicked the bucket." Uncle Eddie shakes his head sorrowfully, "Ray Gecko might have been my friend and partner, but he was also a good for nothing son of a bitch, and the biggest mistake your Mama ever made was marrying him. But, my point is son," Eddie leaned forwards. "I made your mother a promise, to keep an eye on you, and I did, for the first thirty goddamn years. I raised you like my own when I could, and then I kept tabs on you, until you idiots decided to split to Mexico and I don't hear a word from you for THREE. GODDAMN. MONTHS. I thought you boneheads were dead. I made a promise, so don't you make a liar out of me. Don't you go doing that foolery again." 

"Sorry." Seth says quietly, looking like a scolded child.

Oh, yes, Kate thinks, she definitely likes Uncle Eddie. 

Uncle Eddie seems to be able to tell how exhausted they both are. "You can tell me everything in the morning, and I mean everything!"

The sun is just beginning to set, but Kate feels like she could sleep for a full 24 hours. He shows them the spare bedroom and then pauses, glaring pointedly at Seth "One of you can also sleep on the couch, its big enough..." 

"The bed's fine! We can share!" Kate interjects, and she thinks Uncle Eddie's eyebrows might fall off if he raises them any higher. 

"Mmhmm." He doesn't say anything else though, just nods as if his suspicions have been confirmed. He shows them where the laundry machine is, tucked in the back hall closet near the room. "You both look grungy as hell," he says. 

Kate strips down in the bathroom mirror, staring at herself in her only bra, greyed by months of Mexican sink-water, and cheap cotton supermarket panties. She does look pretty grungy. 

She doesn't notice Seth slipping up behind her until she sees him in the mirror, wrapping his arms around her stomach, lightly tracing patterns on the curve of her hip. 

"Thank you," He whispers sincerely into her neck. 

"For what?" 

"For putting up with my shit." He pauses, and she places her hand on top of his arm like she is connecting a circuit of energy that runs between them. "..And for pulling me out of that hole I was in. I never really thanked you for that." 

"It's okay." She murmurs back. "I knew." 

"C'mon," He spins her around and she feels a flutter in her belly, as he reaches around to unclip her bra. "Let's get cleaned up." 

"Okay," Kate says breathlessly. They have had sex at least ten times, eleven actually, Kate counts in her head, if she's counting that one time he went down on her in the bathroom of a dive bar in Puebla. Showering together is new though, the motel showers were always cramped, moldy, and very unsexy. 

This shower, on the other hand, is spacious, with pretty tile and big glass sliding doors. Its the kind of shower that Kate has only seen in home decoration magazines. Seth slips his fingers under her panties and tugs, and she lets them fall loosely to the floor, and steps out of them. She side steps him lightly, walks over to turn on the shower before she has the chance to feel shy. She can feel his eyes on her as she lets the water dance over her fingers and feels it warm up.

She hears Seth step out of his boxers and she steps into the shower, and lets him slide the door closed behind him. She turns around to face him and he pulls her flush against him, wet skin on wet skin. He kisses her, open mouthed and slow and she moans into him, melting into the strength of his arms, the warm water massaging her back. 

Seth turns her away from the spray of the water, and backs her up against the wall. She shivers for a moment, but then he is back on her, sucking at the pulse point in her neck, and she throbs, catching her teeth between her lips and stifling back a whimper. 

"It's okay baby, no one can hear." He murmurs. "Let it out." 

The ache of tiredness starts to melt away, and instead she is left with a warmy fuzzy relaxation, and an insistent need aching through her belly. Her limbs feel like jello in Seth's hands as he turns her around, an slides a foot in between hers, pushing her legs apart. 

"Oh," she gasps out quietly. 

"Put your hands on the wall," He instructs, softly, but assertively, and it sends sparks through her just like the first time. 

One hand snakes around her ribs to cup her breast, thumb running over one peaked nipple. She jolts, and his other hand slips between her legs, pulling her bottom half up against him, anchoring her, and simultaneously stroking at the bundle of nerves there. 

"Oh god." They haven't had sex in over a week and she's so aroused it hurts. 

He works her over for what feels like an eternity, putting pressure, but not quite enough, moving, but not quite enough. She feels like she's going to explode. Then he kisses her spine, starts making his way down with his lips. 

"No!" She manages suddenly, and he freezes. "Please, please. Need you in me." To drive her point home she arches back, presses into him, and he groans. 

"Okay babygirl." His voice is wrecked, but he still manages to sound smug. "You don't gotta beg, I've got you." 

He enters her slowly, and she leans into the wall, panting at the welcome intrusion, but he pulls her back to him, rocking slowly until he's all the way in. She isn't even coherent anymore, just moaning, "Oh, oh," and twisting until he captures her mouth messily with his own, the hand on her breast coming up to cradle her neck. 

It doesn't take long for either of them, only a few minutes of his strong, slow strokes, and she comes undone, falling limp against the wall. He follows seconds after, pulling out and spilling onto the shower floor. She turns around, slumps into him, and he holds her there for a moment, lips pressed into her wet hair.

"You're gonna be the death of me, sweetheart." He says affectionately, and she feels a spark of pride, that she does this to the great Seth Gecko. 

The stay like that for too long, just holding each other under the warm water, until finally Seth breaks away with a wink. "We should probably use some soap or something, I think we're dirtier than when we started." 

Kate laughs and nods, and lets Seth run the bar of soap over her body, and then scrub shampoo into her hair. She sighs as his fingers work over her scalp. He's rinsing the soap off his own body as she steps out of the shower and begins to towel off. She pulls on her last clean pair of panties, a dark navy blue. Seth steps out of the shower, towel wrapped around his waist, abs glistening like some sort of greek god. 

"Here," He hands her a t-shirt, "I had some old clothes here, you can wear this while we wash yours." 

Its dark grey and much too big for Kate, but by the look Seth gives her she can tell her approves. It smells like Seth and hits her midthigh. She feels all warm again, like she really truly _belongs_ to him. 

"If I wasn't so tired, and we hadn't just showered, I'd fuck you again babygirl." He rasps and her mouth falls open into a little "o." 

Maybe in the morning, she thinks to herself, warm blush spreading through her cheeks as Seth turns to wipe the fog from the mirror. She grabs her towel off the rack and dries her hair absentmindedly, stepping into the hall and thinking about how damn good that bed is going to feel. She turns and it takes a moment for her tired brain to register what she is seeing, but when she does any sleepiness is erased with a spike of adrenaline. Its a shotgun, pointed right at her face, and it isn't being held by Uncle Eddie. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: use a condom kids, even in the shower.
> 
> Comments are much appreciated! Let me know what you guys think.


	3. Chapter 3

Kate freezes. _Shit._ She's got nothing, barefoot and still gripping a wet towel. Seth must notice her sudden silence, because he starts to come out of the bathroom, towel slung low on his hips, all cocky swagger. She spins, eyes full of panic, and tries to warn him, but it's too late. 

"Well look what we have here." The bigger of the two shotgun-wielding intruders drawls. "A real life Geck-o." 

Kate's still wet hair runs down the back of her shirt and drips on the floor. _Drip. Drip. Drip._

She sees the muscles in Seth's jaw flex, wheels turning, trying to figure out how they're gonna get out of this one. 

"A couple of days ago, dude comes by, says his name's Richie Sands...big player in the flesh trade, wants to make a deal with the browns. Now it makes sense, he ain't no Richie Sands. He's Richie Gecko. And you...you're the other one." The man shoves the shotgun in Seth's face. 

Kate flinches, but Seth doesn't even blink. "That's the one and only, you asshole." 

The man's eyes narrow, and then a slow, humorless smile passes over his face. "Your brother took something from me, so now I'm gonna take something from you." 

Before Kate has time to register what's happening the shotgun is out of Seth's face and in her own, the big man's finger edging towards the trigger. 

Seth goes completely still, bravado gone. "Hold on!" 

Suddenly Kate feels like she is tied to that sacrificial altar all over again. And she is _pissed._ She's Kate _goddamn_ Fuller. Who does this low-down gangster think he is to kill her after she survived an entire temple full of ancient vampire-snake strippers. 

"What the hell?" She spits, and shotgun guy recoils slightly. "You're gonna kill me because of his douchebag brother?" The words come out surprisingly easy, because now that she thinks about it, she's still pretty angry at Richie. She's angry at him for leaving Seth, for leaving _her_ to pick up his brother's broken pieces. She's angry at him for making her think they had some sort of connection and then joining up with those monsters that killed her family. 

Seth seems shocked by her outburst too. "Shut up Kate!" He hisses, as if he has some sort of monopoly on shit-talking your way out of danger. 

"Don't tell me to shut up!" She snaps, and sees the gangster lower the shotgun slightly, bemused at their squabbling. _Perfect._

She sees the realization hit Seth, he knows what she's doing, and he runs with it. "Oh my god! Don't get all hysterical!" 

"Hysterical??" She raises her voice another octave, enough that she sees the other henchman actually wince. "I'll show you hysterical!" 

The shotgun cocks. "If you don't both shut the fuck up right now, I'm gonna shoot you both in the goddamn face!" 

Seth turns sharply, one arm subtly pushing Kate behind him. "Ya know what?" He holds his arms out. "Do me a favor, shoot me!" 

Then, before the big one has time to make good on his promise, Seth's arms are jabbing out, one hand connecting with the non-jolly giant's face, and the other wrapping around the barrel of the shotgun. The gun goes off, but Seth wrestles it away in time, metal pellets exploding into the wall, shredding the wood paneling. 

The next few seconds are a blur of deafening shots and blood as Uncle Eddie rounds the corner. He and Seth finish off the two gangbangers, sending an excessive amount of rounds into the big guy, until he is sliding down the wall in a pulpy red mess. 

Seth slings the shotgun over one perfectly muscled shoulder, and pulls Kate into him, finger brushing over her cheek. "You okay, princess?" 

She smiles weakly up at him, "All good, no bumps or scrapes." 

Kate quickly changes in the bedroom and Seth does the same. She grimaces as she pulls back on her dirty jeans. She puts on the same bra, and then shrugs back on Seth's t-shirt. It probably looks ridiculous, but she can't bear to put on the same sweat-stained tank top and denim shirt she's been wearing for the past three days. 

Uncle Eddie is waiting for them in the kitchen, looking royally pissed. Based on the current state of his house, Kate doesn't really blame him. 

"Either of you wanna tell me what that was?" 

Seth ignores him, ranting, mostly at Kate. "We came here to get away from all of Richard's bullshit, and it just had to follow us didn't it!" Seth is waving his arms around, pacing the room.

"It's not just 'Richard's bullshit,' Seth. Its's going to follow us no matter where we go. We can't just run away from it. It's not just thugs with shotguns," Kate waves her hand towards the sheet covered bodies slumped against the wood paneling. "Carlos is still after us, and God knows who or what else. This stuff, its unholy, and it's real, it is _out there_ Seth, and pretending it isn't, isn't going to make it just go away. "

"Well you know what, we can damn well try! How bout we go to Canada, huh? Bet it's too damn cold up there for those hellbeasts!" Seth isn't even shouting at her anymore, now he's yelling up a the ceiling, berating the very universe with his frustration. 

"Hellbeasts? What are you on about now?" Poor Uncle Eddie interjects, looking like he's on the end of his goddamn rope. Kate knows the feeling. "You know what, you are not running off to Canada, you are gonna sit your ass down, right now, and explain to me what the hell is going on." 

Seth sighs, plops down at the table, and hangs his head wearily. "You don't wanna know Eddie." 

They end up telling Uncle Eddie the truth, minus the existence of culebras. So like... a third of the truth. 

"Jesus Christ, you never take hostages Seth! Didn't I teach you anything?" Uncle Eddie gripes. "And your brother, leave it to him to get involved with some sort satanic organized crime outfit." He pauses. "You need to find him Seth, you need to talk with him." 

"Like hell I do! I told him we were over Eddie, and I meant it!" 

"He's your brother, Seth." 

"He killed Dad!" Seth bursts out, and she sees the color drain out of Eddie's face "He set that fucking fire! Don't tell me you didn't know?" 

Eddie lowers his head, and Kate can almost feel it, the weight of terrible secret finally uncovered. "I suspected." 

"And you never said anything?" 

"He's your brother, Seth." Eddie says again, like that's all that matters, like that makes it all better. 

"He left me, he chose that bitch over me, Eddie. I would have stayed. I would have done _anything_ for him. He left. Not me." Seth's voice cracks. 

Kate feels a sharp pang of guilt, acid in her throat. Because she wouldn't have stayed with Scott, she abandoned him, because she was afraid and hated the monster he had become. But she's looking for him now, and that has to count for something, right? 

Kate sits and sips on coffee, too tired to care whether it comes from monkey poop or not, while Uncle Eddie and Seth and look over floorplans and maps. Finally Seth sighs, and grabs the car keys. "Alright, I'll do it. But I'm doing it for the score, not for Richard." He turns, "Kate, can you come here a second?" 

They go to the other room, where Eddie can't hear them. 

"I'm coming with you." Kate says, before Seth has the chance to talk over her.

"No, you aren't. You're gonna stay here with Eddie. I don't know what I'm going into here." 

"That's _exactly_ why you need me Seth, you need a partner," Kate insists. 

"Hey, c'mon, don't play like that. You're still my partner."

"You don't have to be the lone ranger Seth. Besides, you know as well as a I do, the 'browns' are culebras. If you find anything, I want to be there. I deserve to be there. I'm still looking for my brother too, Seth."

"Okay." Seth nods, slowly, and then hands her the keys. "But you're driving." 


	4. Chapter 4

When they arrive at a building that is clearly a poorly disguised illicit strip club, Kate quickly realizes the whole “letting her drive” thing was just a ploy to keep her in the car.

“You’re my getaway driver, I need you ready to go baby,” Seth explains, one hand hanging loosely off his half opened car door.

Kate knows it’s a load of bullshit, and has half a mind to tell Seth that, but decides not too. She isn’t in any hurry to go inside another strip club anytime soon. Instead of protesting she just leans forward and presses a firm kiss to his mouth. “Be careful.”

He swipes a thumb over her cheekbone softly and then pulls away with a wink. “I always am.”

Kate scoffs as he casually tosses a shotgun on his shoulder, aiming a roguish grin towards her. “You’re anything but careful.”

Their eyes meet for a second, and its silent, too silent. She swallows. “Just come back to me, okay?”

He nods like it’s the surest thing in the world. “I could never leave you.”

“Okay,” she says, and then he’s gone, and she is locking the car door behind him and switching off the lights just like he said.

It’s quiet in the car, and stuffy, even though it’s nighttime. The air is stagnant and humid, like she’s once again trapped in the tunnels under the twister. For a moment her throat constricts. She cracks the car window ever so slightly and breathes a sigh of relief when the cool air hits her face.

Kate taps her fingers on the cracked fake leather of the steering wheel, setting a steady rhythm that gets her out of her own head. One big door of the industrial looking building opens and she jolts with anticipation thinking that it could be Seth. It isn’t, it’s more thugs, with guns, herding a group of crying girls in fluffy quinceñera dresses into the back of a big white truck.

Kate can hear the girls crying, soft defeated cries of sorrow. They plod slowly into the back of the truck, heads hung down, tucked under hair-sprayed curls that dust sweetheart necklines covered in fake jewels, like a sick beauty pageant procession. Whatever is happening, the girls certainly aren’t willing participants. They look terrified, and lost, and like they think no one in the world will help them. Human trafficking, words that Kate has only seen on easily dismissed pamphlets in truck stops and doctors offices, PSA’s that never hit as hard as the horrible scene unfolding in front of her. 

Kate wants to help them. She sees one of the thugs shove a girl in a green dress particularly hard and she wants to throw the car door open and storm over and put a bullet right between his eyes. She doesn’t though, she just sits there and watches, and digs her fingernails into the steering wheel. Kate’s not Rambo, and though her aim has gotten good, she isn’t quick enough to take out two armed killers for hire. Besides, it’s not the plan, and Seth is insistent about sticking to the plan for a reason.

The men close up the back of the truck, lowering the bar on the door and locking it, sealing the soft wailing inside the shipping container. One of them pauses, glancing absentmindedly around the parking lot, and she sinks down in the seat, even though she knows she is obscured by shadows. The man’s eyes never focus on anything though, and soon the beast of a truck is roaring to life and pulling out onto the highway.

Kate sits in the car for what feels like an eternity, but in reality is only fifteen minutes (she counts, watching the analog clock that hasn’t been adjusted for daylight savings time).

Finally, she sees Seth burst out of then doors, and her heart soars. Richie is behind him and they are walking in that frightfully in-tune way of theirs, but still arguing.

Kate can’t make out what they are saying, but she sees Richie clench his jaw and march towards a flashy sports car. Seth hauls the shotgun up and blasts out one of the tires. She doesn’t need to hear Richie to see the words his mouth form at that one. “What the fuck Seth!”

There’s some more arguing and hand waving and then they pause and she sees Richie’s eyes dart over to the car where she’s waiting. It’s dark, but somehow she knows he can still see her. His eyes meet hers slowly, and a small smirk crosses his face. She shivers. The gaze breaks and he looks at Seth with irritated admission, and they begin to make their way over to the car.

Seth throws open the front door as Richie clambers in the back. Kate turns the key and throws the car into drive. The headlights flash on, overwhelmingly bright up against the stone work on the outside of the building.

“Drive Kate!” Seth hollers, and she steps on the gas, the rusty hatchback squealing out of the parking lot.

“Nice car, where did you get it?” Richie scoffs behind her, she swears she can feel his breath on the back of her neck, and it’s cold, not warm.

“Stole it from an American hippie in Monterey.” Seth replies.

“Wow. Must’ve been a bad place to go through the trouble of stealing a piece of crap car like this.”

“No thanks to you.” Seth hisses.

God, the tension in the air is so thick Kate thinks she might choke on it. She white knuckles the steering wheel, keeping her eyes glued to the road as she merges onto the highway.

Kate hears Richie shift, sees his eyes in the rear view mirror as they dart snake-like, under glasses he doesn’t need, to look at her.

“See you’ve got yourself a new get away driver, hmm? The little teen queen Bonnie to your Clyde? What happened to don’t touch the girl, brother?”

“Fuck off Richard, it’s not like that.”

“Sure,” Richie says, and he sounds sour. For the first time he addresses Kate. “Glad to see you’re still alive Katie.”

“You too,” she says instinctively, not really having time to process if she actually is glad or not.

“Well, that’s not entirely accurate.” Richie says, because he isn’t really alive is he?

Kate interrupts the awkward reunion talk that she really, really doesn’t want to have right now. “Does anyone actually know where I’m going? Cause I don’t, I’m just driving in a random direction.”

“We need to follow the truck,” Seth says. “Do you know where it went?”

“No,” Kate shakes her head. “The one with all the girls in it?”

“Yeah,” Seth shoots a look back at Richie, “the one with all the girls in it. Richie’s girls.”

“You’re trafficking girls?” Kate spits out, and it’s all she can do to keep her eyes on the road. She knows Seth and Richie are bad people, knows they’re kidnappers, and murderers, she knows better than anyone, but this?

“No.” Richie says forcefully, “I already told Seth, it’s just so we can track them back to Malvado. He deals in the flesh trade if you know what I mean.”

Flesh trade...it hits Kate, these girls are headed for a worse fate than just being raped, they’re literally going to be meals, and god knows what else, just like all those people in the twister.

“Whose Malvado?” She doesn’t recognize the name.

“Vampire kingpin. Richie’s little girlfriend has it out for him.” Seth explains.

“We aren’t vampires, Seth.” Richie squints angrily. “We’re culebras, a rich and ancient tradition of which I am honored...”

“No one gives a shit Nosferatu,” Seth interrupts.

“Enough,” Kate slams her hands on the steering wheel. “Where the hell am I driving?”

“No fucking clue, Kate, pull over the car.” Seth directs.

She does, taking the next exit and coming to a stop in the parking lot of an abandoned gas station.

Seth pulls out his cell phone and flips it open and dials Uncle Eddie. After a short conversation, with a lot of garbled yelling from uncle Eddie on the other side, and a lot of okay-will-do’s from Seth, Seth finally hangs up an says “Alright, he knows a sheriff up a ways that’s as crooked as a Picasso painting. He’s gonna help us.”

Richie rolls his eyes in the backseat. “I don’t know why you even called him. We don’t need help.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, is there some kinda snake radar in that melon of yours now?” Seth turns around to face him.

“Well I would have gotten the location of the truck from Blanchard if you hadn’t started blastin’ away in there like it was the goddamn Tech Noir!”

“Whatever, I saved your ass!”

“I don’t need you to save me, Seth! Never have! I’m not fucking incompetent like you seem to think.”

“Oh my god, shut up!” Seth’s phone beeps with a text message and Kate snatches it from him, reading the address, a diner just off I-45. “Sheriff’s gonna meet us. Let’s go.We don’t have time to waste with you two bickering. We have a truck full of kidnapped girls to catch up with.”

“Ooh, you the defender of justice now Katie-cakes?” Richie mocks.

Kate grits her teeth and throws the keys at Seth, possibility a little too hard, and steps out of the car. “You’re driving Seth. And let’s go before I punch both of you.”

The diner is mostly empty, and looks like it’s seen it’s heyday, red vinyl booths dimly lit with green overhead lamps. The walls are decorated with Cracker Barrel-esque paintings and a mounted deer head. A few old trucker types are playing a casual game of pool at one of the tables in the corner and a man in a jean vest fiddles with a probably broken jukebox.

There’s only one table occupied, in the center of the room, an older man in a tan sheriffs uniform, stirring an unhealthy amount of sugar into his black coffee. Kate trails behind the two brothers, and Seth pulls out a chair for her, puling it towards his own chair so all three of them are all facing off the sheriff on the other side of the table.

The sheriff raises an eyebrow as Seth as he explains the situation, pouring one, two, and finally a third cup of creamer into his coffee. “Do I look like Poncharello to you? Like I live in some fantasy world where I can just get on the radio and call for a bolo?”

Seth sighs, “Sheriff, we're in a bit of a rush, so...”

“Do you even know who Poncharello is?

“Yes, I know who Frank Poncharello is.”

The sheriff glances over to Kate and he knows his human, but he has eyes as snake-like as any culebra. “Bet your little Lolita over here doesn’t. How old are you, fifteen?”

Seth, bristles and places one hand on Kate’s leg. “None of your business.”

“Look,” Richie leans forward. “You gonna help us or not?”

“Sure” the sheriff drawls. “I’ll help ya. But a BOLO is a tricky thing. You even got a person of interest?”

“I got Benjamin Franklin and about twenty of his brothers, how’s that for a person of interest?” Seth interjects.

“Hmm,” sheriff muses, “add five more of those and you’ve got a deal.”

Kate starts regretting telling Seth to drive about the time they finally catch up to the truck and he swerves into it, sending it spinning of the road. Her teeth clack together and she grips her arm rest as Richie yells from the back.

“What the hell Seth? You were just supposed to follow them.”

“Tough luck, Richard,” Seth pulls the car up beside the truck, where the driver is already starting to get out, pissed off and confused.

“Pinche loco! You almost killed me you asshole!”

Kate slips out of the car behind Richie and palms lightly at the grip of her Walther PPK. The truck driver looks like he is about to hulk out.

Seth runs up and shoves the guy, “Hey, donde esta el jefe? Where’s your boss? Huh?”

That’s enough to set the guy off, his head rears back, and fangs pop out. Kate has her gun out as soon as he lungs towards Seth, but before she has time to take aim he has a steak through the culebra’s heart.

“Seriously?” Richie rages as the dust settles on the ground. “You dick! You just blew my chance of figuring out where this thing was going.”

“Who cares!” Kate re-holsters her gun and walks past them, stepping up on the cab of the truck and pulling the keys out of the ignition. “I’m gonna let those girls out.”

“Hey!” Richie starts towards her but is interrupted by the sound of a siren growing closer.

“Shit.” Seth looks up at the same time Kate does, to see the incoming Sheriff’s car.“Go, just go.” He waves them behind the truck. “I’ve got this, trust me.”

Richie rolls his eyes, but complies, pulling Kate with him, one big hand wrapped around her arm. She shoves him off as soon as they get around back, and starts going through the keys, trying to find the one that fits in the lock.

“Wait.” Richie places a hand on her arm again, but it’s gentle this time. He cocks his head in Seth’s direction. Kate sighs, every bone in her body telling her to open that door and free those girls, but she nods.

She hears the sheriff talking to Seth, “Tell your partner and your little girlfriend to get out here.”

“He’s not my partner,” Seth responds quickly. “She’s my partner. He’s my brother. Do you even know who we are?”

“Brother?” Realization washes over the Sheriff’s face as Kate and Richie round the corner. “Well I’ll be a son of a bitch. The Gecko brothers.”

“Yep, congrats, that’s us. You do this right you’ll get medals, maybe even do shaving adds and shit.” The sarcasm is strong in Seth’s voice. He turns to Richie, “The Sheriff here is gonna take the truck off our hands, knows exactly where to take it.”

“Damn right I do.” The Sheriff says.

Oh, you stupid man, Kate thinks. You stupid, stupid man.

A few minutes later, for the first time in her life, Kate is in handcuffs. She’s wedged in between two career criminals in the back of a cop car, shifting uncomfortably as Richie struggles to break the metal link in between his own handcuffs. If only the good people of Bethel could see her now.

“You got it?” Seth asks, leg firmly pressed up against hers, even though it doesn’t need to be.

"Yeah,” Richie grunts, and then finally the handcuffs snap.

He kicks twice and breaks the door open, getting out and grabbing the keys and tossing them back to Kate and Seth. Kate rolls her shoulders, trying to get the kinks out, and Richie smirks at her from the front seat. “You ever driven a cop car before Katie-Cakes?” 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some Richie and Kate platonic bonding. This fic is solely Seth/Kate though.

Kate doesn't flinch when Richie rips out the sheriff's jugular. He knew that there were girls in that truck, and he was perfectly happy to send them to their fate if it meant an early retirement. Kate knows its not her place to judge sinners, but in some perverse way she is glad that Richie is sending the man to his judgement a little faster.

She lets the girls out of the back of the truck while Richie and Seth stand at the top of the hill, silhouetted up against the too-bright lights of the place called "Jacknife Jed's." It isn't as overtly gaudy as the Titty Twister, but something about it gives Kate that same sick feeling deep in the pit of her stomach. The spinning red lights up against the dark, rustic wood, the rest of the building melting away into the darkness of the night. "Eat here," blinks the light at the front of the truck stop. It keeps blinking, like a lure to a moth, and she shakes away the unsettled thrum in her bones and focuses on getting the girls out. 

Kate offers her hand to one girl who is too small to step out of the truck without hopping. She can't be older than fourteen, heavy coats of mascara and blush not concealing her too young, child face. The girl flinches for a moment, takes Kate's hand hesitantly, and then steps down. She doesn't deserve this, Kate thinks, no one deserves this. 

"This is it brother, the center of power," Richie says to Seth, turning back towards the truck as the girls crowd around him and into each other nervously. They put as much distance between themselves and the truck as possible and Kate knows they are terrified of being put back in. 

Seth calls someone, someone that Eddie knows. A middle aged woman who has a smoker's voice and rough hands, but a kind face. She shows up with a passenger van and a promise to take the girls to safety. 

Richie's eyes glimmer behind his glasses, and she knows he feels the pull of the place below them too, but in a different way than she does. Seth's posture is stiff, jaw clenched, but she can see it in his gaze too, the same sparkle that he had before every small score they pulled in Mexico. The prequel to the crime itself, the wheels turning in his head before enacting the adrenaline fueled plan. 

"What do you say we leave a calling card?" Richie's smile curls up in the reptilian fashion it had even before he turned culebra. 

Richie always had a taste for the spectacular, the explosive. Kate knows from the news reels of the bank robbery in Abilene that she has seen after the fact, and the liquor store gone up in flames. Seth's particular brand of violence is more dull grit than his brother's, more bloody fists and bravado, and less sharp efficiency.

Richie opens the gas tank, and puts the lighter fluid soaked rag in the opening, but lets Kate light the match. Seth pulls her back quickly, back to the beat up hatchback. She slips in the back, lets Richie take shotgun. The three of them speed away from Jacknife's, down the back country road, the truck exploding in the rearview mirror. 

"Jesus fuck Richard, why do you have to be such a goddamn pyro?" Seth is shaking his head in irritation.

There's a tinge of fondness in his faux anger though, Kate can tell. For all Seth's ranting and raving in Mexico about how he was done with Richie, and he was "as good as dead" to him, Kate always knew none of it was true. Seth had a kind of masochistic devotion to his brother, whether he would admit it or not. 

"Why don't you stop getting up in my business, brother?" Richie snaps back.

"Your business? Oh excuse me, I think it kind of became my business when you dragged me to that goddamn temple in the desert and almost got me eaten by fucking snake people. You also made it my business when Carlos came after Kate and I because of your stupid little queen bitch girlfriend." 

"Oh please! That's not all this is about." Richie folds his arms like a petulant little child. "I know Eddie told you about the operation. I can tell when you've got a stiffy for a score, brother. This my sandbox, stay the hell out." 

Seth rolls his eyes, doesn't come back with any retort, just keeps driving. They all sit in uncomfortable silence for a moment and then Kate breaks it. 

"Have you seen Scott?" Kate addresses Richie, suddenly hopeful. "Do you know where he is?" She gets the impression that being a culebra is kind of like being a member of an exclusive, highly fucked up club. Maybe word gets around about what is going on with the other members. 

"Scott? Your brother?" Richie scoffs. "Why would I have seen him?" 

Kate's heart sinks. 

"He got turned too." Seth offers, giving Richie a pointed look, saying something in that uncanny silent way of theirs. 

"Oh." Richie softens, gets the message from Seth. "No, I'm sorry Kate. I didn't know. I haven't seen him." 

Kate wonders, not for the first time, if her brother is still trapped in the bowels of that terrible place. She wonders if he is wandering around, slowly loosing his mind, becoming more and more like those monsters in the pits of it, completely devoid of any remnants of humanity. She feels the sharp pang of guilt for the thousandth time, hears her father's voice, _"You need each other Katie-cakes. He needs you."_ Scott needed her, and she left him. She left him in a moment of anger, and fear, because she couldn't face what she had become. 

Kate looks at Richie and Seth now, glaring at each other when the other isn't looking, and they might be squabbling, but at least they're together. Seth is more full of life that she has seen him in months.

" _We're better together."_ Her own words echo back to her from when she still had hope, had faith that her family might be okay.

"I'm going to find him." Kate whispers, half to herself. Neither of the Gecko's respond. 

They make it back to Uncle Eddie's before sunlight, Richie rushing inside before the first morning's rays can fry his face. Uncle Eddie pauses from scrubbing the remaining blood from the carpet, long enough to chew them both out, especially Richie. Kate seals her lips, observing with slight amusement as the infamous Gecko duo cowers before their adoptive Uncle. Finally, when Eddie seems to have tired out his very colorful vocabulary, Richie crawls up on the couch and almost immediately falls asleep, like a snake under a heat lamp. 

"C'mon," Seth wraps a hand around her wrist, leads her gently down the hall. "Let's finally get some rest." 

The adrenaline of the night is starting to wear off for both of them. The room spins slightly as Kate sits down on the bed and pulls her jeans and bra off, crawling under the covers in just Seth's shirt and her panties.

Seth strips down too until he's just in his boxers, and flops down beside her, shaking the bed and making her giggle. He laughs too, just because she is laughing, and because they are both so damn tired. 

Kate curls into him, he feels so warm and secure around her small body, and she wonders how this happened. How did this man, who once terrified her, become her security? It might not be right, the two of them together are definitely a million different kinds of screwed up, but Kate doesn't care. She did everything right the first eighteen years of her life, played the good little girl she was supposed to be, and in the end it didn't matter. No amount of goodness could save her from the hell that came to her. Despite following the rules all her life, she still lost everything she had. After all that, she can't tell herself that she doesn't deserve this one thing, this one comfort. 

Some part of Kate is afraid though, afraid that Seth might leave her. She's all alone in the world, he's the only thing she has, and dammit if she doesn't love him. But she isn't the only thing he has. He has Richie again, and she's happy for him. She really is, she saw how much he suffered with out his brother, but the small, insecure young girl part of her is also afraid. 

Seth nuzzles into her neck, arms wrapped around her torso and unspoken words on his lips. 

"You have to forgive each other eventually," Kate whispers. 

Seth sighs, heavy and resigned. "I know Katie, its just gonna take some time." 

"He's your brother." Kate says softly. 

Seth doesn't say anything for a while, and then just when she thinks he might have fallen asleep, he whispers, almost too low for her to hear and only for the second time ever, "I love you Princess." 

Kate feels warm inside, just lightly squeezes Seth's hand in response. She knows now that she never should have doubted Seth, his moral code might be skewed, but his loyalty to the people he loves is unwavering. She sleeps the best she's slept for weeks. 

The old analog clock on the nightstand reads noon when Kate finally wakes up, still groggy. Seth stirs lightly, but doesn't open his eyes. She peels his arm off of her gently, not wanting to wake him. He managed to sleep through the night for the first time, without the assistance of heroin, and she wants to give him his rest. 

Kate goes to the bathroom, and then splashes water on her face, and brushes her hair. She slips on a navy blue v-neck top, clean but wrinkled. They hadn't had time to fold any of the laundry last night, so everything is crumpled, even her jeans, but she doesn't care. She's learned not to overestimate the joy in having little things, simple things like fresh-washed clothes or air-conditioning or a nice hot shower. Living on the run has made her more appreciative in some ways. 

Kate makes her way out to the kitchen/living room, where Richie is still passed out on the couch. His hair is still unnervingly slicked back in its smooth, gangster style, despite presumably having been asleep the entire time. His glasses are perched carefully on the coffee table. She pauses a moment to see if his chest still rises and falls with breathing. It does. There is no sign that he's an undead monster. He looks perfectly alive. He doesn't even look like the big bad Richard Gecko: bank robber extraordinaire. He just looks like Richie, Seth's brother, a normal man sleeping on a couch. 

"Glad to see one of you kids is finally up," Uncle Eddie smiles at her from the kitchen. 

Kate tip toes over to sit down at the table, smiling back. 

"Those boys could sleep all day," Eddie says fondly. "You want some eggs?" 

"I could go for some eggs." Richie's voice rasps behind her.

Kate near about jumps out of her skin, she hadn't heard him coming up behind her. She wonders if that was a culebra thing, or if he had always been that eerily silent. 

"Hmph," Eddie scoffs. "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to the little lady. You can make your own damn eggs." He turns back to Kate. "How do you want them sweetheart?" 

"Scrambled, please." Kate smiles sweetly at him, just because she knows it will piss Richie off. She sees him rolls his eyes in her peripheral. 

Eddie cracks an egg in the pan and Kate turns to Richie. "Shouldn't you be looking for your girlfriend?" It's petty, but she's still angry. She was angry at Seth too, for a long time, but she's had time to work through that anger. With Richie this is the first time that she's seen him since the twister. Her memories are still fresh with a Bible salesman suit and a shiny gun, and a den of snakes waiting to tear her already broken family to pieces. 

"She's fine." Richie says, if he noticed the sharp tinge to her words he ignores it. "She got away from Carlos, she texted me." 

Kate has a hard time imagining the ancient snake queen texting. She can't imagine her even holding a smartphone; can't actually imagine her doing anything but luring in unsavory men to a bloody death. That's stupid though, she realizes, because Richie has a life beyond just being a culebra doesn't he? He has goals and ambitions. He isn't just a wild, ravenous animal. 

"Here you go," Eddie sets a plate of scrambled eggs in front of Kate, and they're definitely slightly burned; she gets the impression he's more of a tv dinner kind of guy than a future master chef competitor.

Nonetheless, Kate shovels a big forkful in her mouth. "Delicious, thanks!"

Eddie wipes his hands on a dish towel with a misshapen rooster. "I'm gonna go wake up Seth, that lug has slept long enough." 

"Okay," Kate laughs. "He'd probably sleep all day if you let him." 

"He did once," Richie says as Eddie leaves the room. "One time after a job in Phoenix, he slept a full twenty four hours. Wasn't even drunk or anything. I don't know how he does it." 

"Oh my gosh, he told me about the job in Phoenix. That's the one where you..."

"Let the numbskulls think he was dead, yeah," Richie finishes, chuckling, but it trails off. He fixes her with a look she can't quite place. He is always hard to read, so enigmatic, so unlike his brother in that way, who wears everything on his sleeve. 

"He really missed you, you know." Kate says softly and sincerely, swallowing her eggs with the lump that has suddenly risen in her throat. 

Richie turns away, not meeting her gaze anymore, staring at the fruit basket that only has one apple. 

"Why did you go with Seth? After it all? Why did you stay with him? You're not like us Kate, you never have been." 

Kate shrugs, puts down her fork, appetite gone. "I lost everyone Richard. I didn't have anyone. My father died, my brother left. I just didn't want to be alone." She pauses, stares at her plate. "I don't think I was ever as good as you thought, Richie." 

"Yes you are." Richie says, with a certain amount of boyish certainty mixed with a strange, unnatural wisdom. "You know what I thought when I first saw you?" He asks, a pointedly rhetorical question. 

"No, but I'm sure you're going to enlighten me." 

"Well, the very first thing I thought when I saw you, was how much I wanted to rip off that little bikini off with my teeth, right there on one of those plastic pool chairs." Richie says matter-of-factly, a smirk curving at the edge of his lips. 

"Classy." Kate wrinkles her nose. 

"The second thing I thought," he sobers, " was how pure you were, how good." 

"Not anymore," Kate feels a shameful blush creep up her cheeks and she ducks her head. "Your brother took care of that problem for me." 

Richie shakes his head. "No, that's not what I meant. Not that kind of purity. The kind you have is a light in your soul. You're a good person at the core Katie-cakes." 

"I'm not," she whispers. "I've done bad things, Richie, I've killed people. I shot a man in Mexico, killed him because he pulled a knife on Seth. We were stealing his car Richie, good people don't do that." 

Kate doesn't know why she's doing this, confessing her sins to a man who has accumulated so many more. She doesn't even think Richie, with his limited moral compass, can begin to understand the weight of her guilt. 

"The same reason you feel guilt is why you're pure Katie," Richie says like he has read her mind. "One action doesn't erase that light in your very being. You did it to protect Seth, not because you wanted to kill that man."

He pauses, piercing blue eyes staring at her through, what she presumes are now fake, glasses. It feels like that first day at the pool all over again, like he's staring into her soul, seeing things that even she can't see. 

"You know, the first time I killed it was to protect Seth too." He says finally. 

"I know," she says. "You killed your Daddy. I killed mine too. In the temple. So he wouldn't become a culebra." 

Kate realizes that too was a form of protection, protecting her father from a monster he couldn't bear to become. Both times she made a decision, and Richie is right, it was out of love. That doesn't make it right, but she did the best she could at the time. Sometimes she wonders if the world is just full of people in bad situations making bad decisions because it's the best they thought they could do.

There's evil out there, Kate knows that now, but it isn't in her. The guilt is still there, she thinks it always will be, but she slips her hand into Richie's and gives it a slight squeeze. For a moment the weight feels a little bit lighter. 

Seth clears his throat, excessively loud, announcing his entrance to the room. "Sorry, am I interrupting something." 

Kate sees his overly defense posture puffed up with jealously, and cocked eyebrow, daring either of them to say something. She fights the urge to roll her eyes, and just slips her hand gently from Richie's. "No Seth, we were just talking." She walks up to Seth, lifting on her lip toes to plant a kiss on his lips that leaves no room for question which Gecko she belongs too. 

"Where's Eddie?" Richie asks from behind her. 

"He got a call, went to meet someone." Seth pulls a chair out and flips it around, straddling it. Kate leans up against the table next to him. 

"He's got information on Jacknife's doesn't he? Don't lie to me, I know he does. He's got a score brewing." 

"Yeah." Seth says warily. "Maybe, but I don't have it." 

"Well can you get it?" Richie says impatiently. 

"I don't know Richard, maybe. But I thought you wanted me to stay out of your fucking sandbox? Or did I somehow misinterpret that?" 

"Look," Kate interrupts. "The way I see it, this is a pretty big deal, for all of us. Score or no score. This man, Malvado, he is at the center of all this, am I right?" 

"Yeah," Richie nods. 

"We're all involved in this, whether you like it or not. Neither of you can pull this off alone. I've seen what happens when the two of you are apart. Whether you want to admit it you two boneheads work better together, as a team." 

"Fine." Seth narrows his eyes. "I'll talk to Eddie. But I'm doing this for you, Kate." He turns to his brother. "Don't think everything is just water under the bridge, brother." 

Before Richie can throw back a retort he is interrupted by the distinct sound of a car screeching into the parking lot. Kate can practically smell the burnt rubber from the kitchen. 

"That would be Kisa." Richie winces. 

"She knows how to drive?" Kate can't help but blurt.

"Well…" Richie makes a face. " I don't know if I would say that. We're working on it." 


End file.
